HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Human development which is always confused with economic growth empowers people to participate in the improvement of their own well-being, live a life of absolute freedom on their decisions, actions, and ways of life.

It portrays how economic policy has influenced their quality of life and helps in grouping countries as developed, developing, or underdeveloped. The core of human development is the concept of capabilities which has the basics as good health, access to knowledge, and a decent material standard of living. These “capabilities” are the determinant of living a fulfilled life or not, realizing human potential and can either be expanded or constrained by an individual or constituted effort and conditions of our society.

Africa has experienced a remarkable improvement in areas of human development, such as net primary school enrollment, gender parity in primary education, the representation of women in decision-making, political instability, lite reduction in poverty, immunization coverage and managing the spread of pandemic diseases among others from 1990s till date, especially from the emergence of MDGs through its transition to SDGs. Perpetual reforms are being made in its economy and politics though slowly but aiding the improvement in the outcome of human development.

Reduction in child mortality over the past decades coupled with improvement in fertility leading to sustained population growth and increased urbanization has made the importance in education, healthcare, and housing becomes increasingly evident in Africa. Currently, there are no countries in Africa with “very high” human development as we continue to lag behind other regions of the world despite the aforementioned progress.

For there to be a significant change in human development index in Africa states, the loopholes creating vulnerabilities need to be tied and secured which include the rising scourge of unemployment, incessant failure of government to inspire citizens to be patriotic, poverty, mental health, environmental degradation, sustaining improvements in health and education, et al. Moreover, the outrageous cost of education in Africa need to be checked else, progress made toward achieving universal primary education would do more harm than good without secondary and tertiary enrollments for comprehensive and quality education to break the existing poverty chain.